On 28/08/11 01:17, Tudor Hughes wrote:
On Aug 27, 11:53 pm, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:
On Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:04:51 +0100, Fonzy wrote:
winds up to 80mph, wow

Sustained or gust?

The other side of the pond and in relation to hurricanes the quoted
speeds refer to sustained wind speeds.

This side of the pond most weather reports that headline wind speeds
generally are refering to a single peak gust at an exposed place for
the entire storm.

Such gusts are anything from 10 to 20mph above the sustained wind
speed.

The British media give a very false impression to the general public
of what a sustained winds speed of 60mph is actually like. It'll have
you off your feet given half a chance and would wreak devastation
through an normal urban enviroment.

--
Cheers Dave.
Nr Garrigill, Cumbria. 421m ASL.

It probably would but I have yet to see, after a thorough
trawl of METARs in North Carolina and Virginia just now and a few
hours ago, a sustained wind speed of more than 52 mph, which is Force
9. The rainfall is tremendous and a hazard in itself but the wind
speeds would be familiar to anyone in the Hebrides. Worse things
happens elsewhere which we don't hear about, so why all the fuss?

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.

Of the four destructive forces of a hurricane, winds rank third.

The majority of the deaths in a hurricane historically are from drowning.

It is the storm surge (dependant on the width as well as intensity, and
Irene is a huge hurricane) and the 8-12 inches of rain coinciding with a
spring tide, coupled with the fact that NY is surrounded by water that
is the major cause for concern. How many Hebridean storms produce a foot
of rain and raise the sea level by 8 ft?

From the NHC public advisory:

"BATTERY PARK NEW YORK CITY HAS RECENTLY REPORTED A TOTAL WATER LEVEL
NEAR 8.6 FEET"